Backyard bird watching

[FormerUser]

Snowies are now becoming lower 48 residents this year.That one at Sachuest has brought in quite a few watchers.

[Gloucester2]

A very good friend of mine has great pictures on his phone of a snowie at Bradley Airport in CT

[PRBuzz]

Not all birds of prey have talons and sharp, curved beaks!

Watched a RAVEN ravage a morning dove's nest this afternoon. Saw the adult dove fly to the ground injured but not mortally. Think it later recovered. Then saw the raven fly off with a chick in its beak to another tree. This was no small chick: covered in almost mature features and about 1/2 size or better than the adult. The nest was in a Colorado Blue Spruce in a fairly open, exposed area.

A 2nd chick flew to the ground and disappeared. The raven (same/different?) returned a short time later looking for dessert?

[Raven]

the dove was faking the injury to draw the predator away

[Raven]

Bluebirds at my suet feeder's today

[ProfessorM]

Cool. I've heard them Off and on but not spotted them around the yard for at least two weeks now.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[Raven]

Originally Posted by ProfessorM

Cool. I've heard them Off and on but not spotted them around the yard for at least two weeks now.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

actually they've been here ever since .....shoving a broken in half berry suet cake into the hollow log is a perfect attraction for them.
they go in... luvin it

[Sundowner]

Any chance to get a birding forum on here? The posts go back on this thread to 08 but there are over 650 posts.One of the cooler pair of birds I have frequent my feeders has been the Eastern Towhee.

[2na]

this kinda is the birding forum.

As such, an outstanding few last days for me. Had the return of the pine warblers (they are pretty much unafraid of me/people so I can get to within a few feet of them), a rare sighting of a yellow rumped warbler (they both go for suet until the bugs come out) (and as I was typing this one showed up on my seed board - I didn't think they did that) two female indigo bunting (hope the guys show up this year), chipping sparrows and, last but certainly not least, something I've never seen before: two ruby-crowned kinglets (unfortunately, they seemed to just be passing through - I was out in the yard and they came from one end to the other flitting through the branches looking for bugs - they are tiny and jumpy and I was fortunate enough to have them pass right around me, within a few feet). On top of that I have a pair of Downy woodpeckers and Hairy woodpeckers taking turns at the suet too - those Hairy's make a racket. When I got down here to Truro I found a pile of feathers under the seed board, so looks like a sharp shinned hawk is around.

Speaking of suet, where is the cheapest place now? I've been hitting Ocean State at $1 a cake - anyone able to beat that? With all of the attention I'm getting at my sole suet station I was thinking of adding another, but I'm going through a cake/week.

[2na]

here's a couple of pics of a male indigo on my seed board from a couple of years ago (May 2009)

[Raven]

a handful of finch food thrown into the mix attracts many other birds.
i have found that some birds enjoy regular beef suet better from the grocery store.
the deals for suet squares less than a dollar each seem to be absent now.
nice pics on the male indigo!
i once had a 5 inch cube stuffed with 6 squares hanging over the seed board and on top of it
i piled a big handful of hulled sunflower seed right in the middle.
well it was like a little table and soon goldfinches started lining up on all four sides
like a little Party until they were shoulder to shoulder....it was the greatest site.

[2na]

thanks for the tip on the beef suet. If I'm gonna set up another station might as well use that. As you point out, having different seed sets the table for different birds. I use mainly black sunflower and safflower in my feeders but grab the tweety bird seed for the ground feeders on the seed board. I mix some of that into the feeder seed, but I find that it usually doesn't get eaten and I end up dumping it out on the ground anyways ~

[Raven]

those red onion bags are super for beef suet feeders
so say the woodpeckers as they like how easy it is to
latch on to. i've never really questioned the price of beef suet
because i could tell i was getting more for my buck than squares

[Sundowner]

I was digging up a small stump in the yard today and came across basically a baseball size and form of grubs, threw them under one of the bird feeders and before I walked the 30' back to the stump all sorts of birds were going ballistic until the grackles showed up and ravaged them. A little while later I looked up and saw something chasing a dove through the trees, they were "moving". Just saw the white underbelly, no time to see the tail. Alot of that going on in my yard lately. 3 weeks ago I looked out and saw a red tail almost smashing into the front window. It came through the middle of 2 spruces that the branches are 10' in front of the window. I could see the whole bottom of the bird, its wing span from a foot away looked like it was 10'!!! Almost messed myself

[Raven]

one thing i have preserved in my backyard is a wicked tangled grape vine thicket that gives the birds an escape pod type of place when the predators arrive and
they'll often sit inside of it singing away with absolutely no fear.

[Raven]

So i'm sitting there.... actually kneeling on the couch
looking out the window at 3 am....the dog's been barkin
somethings been out there doin sumthin...
and i see this mouse jump off the side of the house
into the suet cage basket and start eating away
this is only like 24 inches from my head.

This changes everything....about feeding suet
bad enough that the Fokin racoons have been rampaging
and stealing it blind... now it's time for 1/4 inch mesh wire
.............i am going to build my own set up for suet.

[2na]

a few years back I posted a couple of pictures of a white cardinal. Well, I was at my parents place a few days ago and it seems that she is a fully functioning member of bird society - here are some shots of her daughter.

The original one is still around, this one is much brighter while her mom (or possibly sister?) is getting a little worn. The original version was camera shy, but I was able to catch a couple of quick shots of the 1st year before a crow spooked her.

And as an added bonus, while I was there I saw my 1st hummingbird of the season.

[Raven]

interesting that the albino or white coloration only changed in the buff brown color
and that the other darker red colors remained the same.

cardinals tend to "twitch move" so hard to get clear shots sometimes.

cleaning out some old birdhouses today

[Raven]

have "recently" made the scene....

RBG's are here: Rose Breasted Grossbeaks
note to self :buy more seed for these seed crackers
as they are the best in the business At what they do.

WOOD Thrush singing melody in the canopy
our Nightingale.... always great to hear

then there's some i can't even identify
just by hearing them

[smokefish]

Thought this was worth sharing.

[PRBuzz]

Nice shot smokefish, looks like a redheaded bullet!

[Raven]

they are Unique fliers in that they learned that by swooping their approach
they can simply fold their wings in tight momentarily, and shoot through the air like a dart.

Nice to finally see the ruby throat humming birds today

[2na]

timing is everything!

[blondterror]

Originally Posted by smokefish

Thought this was worth sharing.

That looks like a Flicker to me... very cool picture

[2na]

close, but it is a red bellied woodpecker

[Saltheart]

My yard was a nature preserve today. In addition to the groundhog sunning itself , I had a Cardinal and a nice big Hawk. The hawk landed , looked around a while , then took flight again. Given 10 more seconds I'd have had a picture!

[ProfessorM]

heard my first Baltimore Oriole today

[Raven]

yeah Paul Just heard one up there too...

they will eat suet cake especially the berry kind....

friggan raccoons! raided all mine - so - now every night at 3 am
i am on patrol... for awhile...anyways

[Raven]

Originally Posted by 2na

close, but it is a red bellied woodpecker

was thinking the other day... while listening

there's nothing like hearing the "drumming"
of a woodpecker in spring....

like hearing the call of a pheasant real early
on a crisp fall morning

[ProfessorM]

heard my first catbird today while I was on my lunch break at work